exotic, one-of-a-kind caribbean inspired jewelry

or perhaps “ramblin’ man” would have been as apropos as this to begin. i like to walk, and i see a lot of what is happening on the island, a lot of the day to day changes in what is happening here– even though you may not think it, living here, things DO change. i take my camera along wherever i go, to document all this stuff. perhaps not the most interesting stuff in the universe at times, and so there is a real “weeding-out process” that goes along with shooting so many images, but still i get some gems. now, this one i begin my blog with isn’t “the money shot”– that one i will put up onto my photobucket site, and you can check it out by going to my wall and clicking on the appropriate post, but this one still has some charm. i shot this one originally when it only had the two bookend “lizards’, but the shot got lost due to a glitch with the memory card in the camera. i passed by the other day to find the artist had finished up the entire piece, and it was pretty impressive.

which brings me, in an odd sort of way, back to my painting. have patience, please, as this may take a couple of minutes to find the point.
i got to a point with the painting and then jammed up a little bit, couldn’t think of how to approach what i wanted to do, but suddenly the clouds lifted and back to work i went, putting in the first layering of the leaves on the flamboya’n tree and also the trees in the background, got to work on the people who inhabit the foreground, painting in the triciclo– tricycle– and it began to have a little form and shape. however, i was having real problems (in my mind) with the color of the grassy area surrounding the tree and people, thinking i had made a big mistake in choosing it. worries worries worries– it’s always like this with a painting, but i was thinking i might have to do something radical with it sooner or later.

BUT!!– i finally felt good enough with what was happening to begin putting in the shadow areas, and suddenly the color of the grassy area began to truly “POP”!!– filling me with a sense of relief. still some stuff to be done with it, but not a bad color at all. i was sending this image around to people, and i began to get questions about the guy in the foreground– the first one was if he was holding up some binoculars (this person was an avid bird watcher, and so mayhap her concept was a little subjective), but then another friend asked if he was finishing off a bowl of posole (hominy soup)? perhaps a little closer to the mark, but the reality of it is that he is just about to mount his motorbike and is putting on his helmet as he speaks with the woman– these people are center stage in this little drama, and i am happy that people who see what i have done so far are responding to my arrangement.

the thing is, good or bad, they make no posole here– it is a basic taco/salbute/panucho menu and really kind of middle of the road as far as quality– clean, but not much pizazz, if you know what i mean, and the salsas are not too exciting– but it is the setting that always interested me in an artistic way. now, the things that made this interesting in a photographic sense– a monstrous overarching power line complex– don’t really work in a painting sense, so in the beginning of this work i had to redesign it and change the proportions.

however, i recently discovered a little place over on calle 4 and avenida 55 bis that has wonderful panuchos, made the old-fashioned way– with the beans in between the layers of the tortilla, which has been split for this purpose– and their salsa is excellent– truly picosa (real hot!!) and tasty. so when i left this place to go to the dive shop and start my work for the day (licking my chops like a satisfied cat!!), i ran once again into this painted wall, only this time it was a finished piece, and so i got my new shots of it. please feel free to go to my wall and check out “the money shot”– your time will NOT be wasted!!